The First New Home For Humans

The French have discovered the first habitable planet in another solar system. It's called Gliese 581d, and it's a mere 20 light years away. Cosmos magazine reports that French researchers think they've found the first planet other than Earth capable of sustaining life, concluding that it probably has a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere and that "the climate of Gliese 581d is not only stable against collapse but warm enough to have oceans, clouds and rainfall." It orbits the star Gliese 581 in the so-called Goldilocks zone (not too hot; not too cold), which means that water is likely to exist there in liquid form. Gliese 581d is about twice the size of Earth, if seven times its mass. Sounds great doesn't it? Wait. Oh crap. Apparently it takes 300,000 years to travel 20 light years. This may be a bit of a problem.